Block copolymers including ABA triblock architectures are useful as thermoplastic elastomers and toughened plastics depending on the relative glassy and rubbery content. These materials can be blended with other polymers and utilized as additives, toughening agents, and compatibilizers. Most of commercially available block copolymers are derived from petroleum. Renewable alternatives are attractive considering the finite supply of fossil resources on earth and the overall economic and environmental expenses involved in the recovery and use of oil. Furthermore, tomorrow`s sustainable materials are demanding the design and implementation with programmed end-of-life. The present review focuses on the preparation and evaluation of new classes of renewable ABA triblock copolymers and also emphasizes on the use of carbohydrate-derived poly(lactide) or plant-based poly(olefins) having a high glass transition temperature and/or high melting temperature for the hard phase in addition to the use of bio-based amorphous hydrocarbon polymers with a low glass transition temperature for the soft components. The combination of multiple controlled polymerizations has proven to be a powerful approach. Precision-controlled synthesis of these hybrid macromolecules has led to the development of new elastomers and tough plastics offering renewability, biodegradability, and high performance.

As the concerns about environmental problems, climate change and limited fossil resources increase, bio-based production of chemicals and polymers from renewable resources gains much attention as one of the promising solutions to deal with these problems. To solve these problems, much effort has been devoted to the development of sustainable process using renewable resources. Recently, many chemicals and polymers have been synthesized by biorefinery process and these bio-based chemicals and plastics have been suggested as strong candidates to substitute petroleum-based products. In this review, we discuss current advances on the development of metabolically engineered microorganisms for the efficient production of bio-based chemicals and polymers.

The separation of nitrogen heterocyclic compound (NHC) contained in a model coal tar fraction of nine components system was investigated by distribution equilibrium. The model coal tar fraction comprising NHC group (NHCs; indole (In), quinoline (Q), iso-quinoline (iQ), quinaldine(Qu)), bicyclic aromatic compound group (BACs; 1-methylnaphthalene (1MN), 2-methylnaphthalene (2MN), dimethylnaphthalene (DMN)), biphenyl (Bp) and phenyl ether (Pe) and the aqueous methanol were used as the raw materials and the solvent of this work, respectively. A batch-stirred tank was used as the liquid-liquid contact unit of this work. The distribution coefficient of NHCs increased by increasing the equilibrium operation temperature, whereas the selectivity of NHCs with respect to BACs decreased. Decreasing the initial volume ratio of water to the solvent resulted in deteriorating the selectivity of NHCs in reference to BACs, but improving the distribution coefficients of NHCs. At a fixed experimental condition, the sequence of the distribution coefficient and the selectivity with reference to BACs for each groups was increased in order of NHCs > Bp > BACs > Pe and NHCs > Bp> Pe, respectively. Also, the sequence of the distribution coefficient for entire compounds was in order of In > iQ

In many polymer processing operations, the diffusion of small molecules in polymeric materials plays an important role. The fundamental physical property required to design and optimize processing operations is the mutual diffusion coefficient. To investigate the transport properties of polymer/solvent systems at infinite dilution, capillary column inverse gas chromatography (CCIGC) is often employed. In this study, diffusion and partition coefficients of cyclic solvents in styrene/butadiene/styrene (SBS) block copolymer were measured over a wide temperature range using the CCIGC technique.

Isoquercitrin (IQ), quercetin monoglycoside, is classified as a polyphenol, and a minute quantity of IQ is known to be present in several plants. Recently, it was reported that IQ can be prepared by the partial enzymatic hydrolysis of quercetin diglycoside (rutin, RU). In this paper, the effects of enzyme types, enzyme amounts, and substrate concentrations on the reactivity were investigated using a series of multi-enzymes. The reaction, when a 8 ml of Ultra Clear to 1 g of RU was applied with the substrate concentration of 1% at , was found to be optimum, based on the reaction rate and the selectivity to IQ.

In this study, effects of pyrite () particle sizes on the electrochemical characteristics of thermal batteries are investigated using unit cells made of pulverized pyrite by ball-milling. At unit cell discharge test, the electrochemical capacity of pyrite-cell largely increases compared to pyrite-cell, and their internal resistances also decrease. These results are attributed to the increase in the active reaction area of pyrite by ball milling. However, at unit cell discharge test, a pyrite cell shows lower internal resistance than that of pyrite cell only at Z-phase region (). After that, a pyrite cell shows a decrease in the cell voltage and an rapid increase of the internal resistance in J-phase region () is observed compared to those of pyrite cell. It can be concluded that at the higher temperature, the thermally unstable pulverized pyrite is decomposed thermally as well as self discharged, simultaneously, which causes the higher resistance and lower capacity at in J-phase than that of pyrite cell.

The adsorption characteristics of the pellet-type adsorbent prepared from water treatment sludge for trimethylamine and ammonia were studied. The surface area and pore volume of the pellet-type adsorbent increased during calcination at . It was confirmed that the adsorbent prepared from water treatment sludge contained Brnsted and Lewis acid sites. The breakthrough time of the adsorbent for both trimethylamine and ammonia was measured at different adsorbent weights and linear velocities while maintaining constant amounts of trimethylamine and ammonia. The kinetic saturation capacity and the adsorption rate constant for trimethylamine and ammonia were determined at different linear velocities by using the Wheeler equation. It was found that the kinetic saturation capacity and the adsorption rate constant were dependent on the linear velocity. An experimental equation could be derived to predict the breakthrough time of the adsorbent prepared from water treatment sludge for trimethylamine and ammonia at different adsorption conditions.

A plasma hydrophobic coating on commercial fish feed was conducted to prolong the floating time of feed, thereby enhancing the feed consumption rate and reducing the contamination of water in fish farms. The hydrophobic coating on the fish feed was prepared using an atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma with hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO), toluene and n-hexane as the precursors. The effect of the parameters such as input power, precursor type and coating time on the coating performance were examined. The physicochemical properties of the coating layer were analyzed using a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer and a contact angle (CA) analyzer. The water CA increased after the coating preparation, indicating that the surface changed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. The FTIR characterization revealed that the hydrophobic layer was comprised of functional groups such as , Si-O-Si and Si-C. As a result of the hydrophobic coating, the floating time of the fish feed increased from several seconds to 3 minutes, which suggested that the plasma coating method could be a viable means for practical applications. Compared to the water CA measured as soon as the coating layer was prepared, the 6-day aged sample exhibited a substantial CA increase, confirming the aging effect on the improvement of the hydrophobicity.

In order to use the spherical atomizing reduction steel slag (ladle furnace slag, LFS) instead of the fine aggregate of polymer concrete composites, various specimens were prepared with various replacement ratios of atomizing reduction steel slag and the addition ratios of polymer binder. Physical properties of these specimens were investigated through the absorption test, the compressive strength test, the flexural strength test, the hot water resistance test, the pore analysis and the micro-structure using scanning electron microscope. Results showed that the compressive strength and flexural strength of specimens with 7.5% of polymer binders increased with the increase of replacement ratios of atomizing reduction steel slag, but those of the specimens with 8.0% or more of polymer binders showed a maximum strength at a certain replacement ratio due to the material segregation causing the increase of fluidity. By hot water resistance tests, the compressive strength, flexural strength, average pore diameter, and bulk density decreased but the total pore volume and pore diameter increased. It was concluded that the amount of polymer binders could be reduced by maximum 23.8%, because the workability of the polymer concrete was remarkably improved by using the atomizing reduction steel slag instead of fine aggregate. However, since the use of atomizing reduction steel slag decreased the resistance of the polymer concrete to hot water, further studies are required.

Until now, there has been much efforts for the development of polycyclic molecules as high energy materials because of their high density and potential energy. However, there were only a few reports on the development of highly N-substituted polycyclic compounds due to difficulties of the synthesis. We have designed pentaazapropellanes as new high energy materials and we have recently reported unsubstituted 3,7,9,11-tetraoxo-2,4,6,8,10-pentaaza[3.3.3]propellane (TOPAP) 2 as a new skeleton for high energy materials. Herein, the nitration of TOPAP 2 was reported for the first time. Thus, 2,6-dinitro-3,7,9,11-ttraoxo-2,4,6,8,10-pentaaza[3.3.3]propellane (2,6-DNTOPAP) 5C, which is a new nitro derivative of TOPAP 2, was obtained up to 82% yield by the reaction of and anhydrous . The structure of 5C was determined by spectroscopic analysis.

The electrode for gas sensor was prepared by using pitch-based activated carbon fibers and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to investigate the toxic gas sensing characteristics. The physicochemical properties of activated carbon fibers electrode for gas sensor were analyzed with SEM and BET. Toxic gases sensing property of the electrode was also identified by different toxic gases such as , NO and . The specific surface area of activated carbon fibers electrode for gas sensor was decreased by 33% owing to PVA used as a binder compared with the activated carbon fibers. However, its pore size distribution of the ACF electrode was not greatly influenced by PVA. The activated carbon fibers electrode for gas sensor responded to toxic gases by electron hopping unlike semiconductor based gas sensors. In this study, activated carbon fibers electrode was decreased to 7.5% in resistance for the NH3 gas of the 100 ppm concentration and its gas sensing property was confirmed the most excellent compared with other toxic gases.

In this study, steam reforming reaction and surface characteristics of Ni metal foam plate were investigated. Valence state of Ni could be changed by pretreatment, and metallic Ni species exposed on surface as a active site play important role in steam reforming reaction. Porous catalytic membrane also was prepared by mixing of Ni metal foam plate and Ni-YSZ catalyst to control the pore size and assign the catalytic function in Ni metal foam plate. In SEM analysis results, Pore size of Ni metal foam plate could be controlled and Ni-YSZ catalyst well dispersed on surface. Ni based porous catalytic membrane had a similar steam reforming activity regardless of space velocity.

This study investigated the effect of hydrogen permeance and selectivity, catalyst amount, ratio in a feed stream, and Ar sweep gas on the performance of a water gas shift reaction in a membrane reactor. It was observed that a minimum hydrogen selectivity of 100 was needed in a membrane reactor to obtain a hydrogen yield higher than the one at equilibrium and the hydrogen yield enhancement gradually decreased as the hydrogen permeance increased. The CO conversion in a membrane reactor initially increased with the catalyst amount and reached a plateau later for a membrane reactor with a low hydrogen permeance while the high CO conversion independent of a catalyst amount was observed for a membrane reactor with a high hydrogen permeance. For the ratio in a feed stream higher than 1.5, a hydrogen permeance had little effect on the CO conversion in a membrane reactor and it was found that a minimum Ar molar flow rate of was needed to achieve the CO conversion higher than the one at equilibrium in a membrane reactor.

In this paper, the rheological behaviors and non-Newtonian characteristics of maltenes which is effected by hydrocarbon solvent type, solvent mixing ratio, temperature and shear rate was measured and compared with oil sands bitumen. Maltenes was made by SDA (solvent deasphalting) method from oil sands bitumen. Oil sands bitumen had apparent viscosities of measured at a shear rate of in the range of and showed yield stress of 0.1~0.3 Pa at the temperatures below . All the oil sands bitumen and maltenes exhibited a shear-thinning, i.e. pseudoplastic behavior and apparent viscosity of maltenes decreased with decreasing carbon numbers of hydrocarbon solvent. The change in apparent viscosity with temperature could be described by the simple Guzman-Andrade equation, and maltene viscosities were decreased as the mixing ratio of n-pentane was raised. Also, all maltenes approached to Newtonian fluid as temperature were increased. the degree of pseudoplasticity was enhanced with decreasing carbon number of solvent.

A simple heterogeneous system has been developed by using base treated manganese dioxide (B-) for the aerobic oxidation of amines under mild reaction conditions of 1 atm of air and in hexane. This system was highly efficient to oxidize various kinds of primary or secondary amines including aliphatic, aromatic, and hetero-atomic ones under the applied reaction conditions. Amines were oxidized to nitriles or diimines by the self-condensation or oxidative dehydrogenation through imine intermediate. The B- was reused for at least 5 times without any loss of its catalytic performance and showed its cost effectiveness, easy workup, and easy separation of the products for achieving the protocol of green chemistry.

In this study, the purposes are investigating and analyzing car emission factors for estimating road emissions and the legal framework for the control of particulate matters. At the result, when input emission data are not realistic, the modeling output concentration distributions can lead to a serious distortion of the results. So, the spatial analysis of the dust emission vehicles have to be based on the actual traffic volumes. Because dust emission factors used in the car by National Institute of Environmental Research Method (2010) are mainly targeted for 2003-2007 cars these could not reflect the effect of DPF and the dust emission of gasoline passenger car. So, the real dust emission factors of diesel and gasoline cars need to be developed.

Depolymerization of sodium alginate (SA) was carried out by electron beam irradiation in a hydrogen peroxide atmosphere. E-beam with 1.0 and 2.5 MeV of accelerating voltages were employed in this experiment. For control of molecular weight and the radiation yield of scission (), the irradiation dosage of e-beam was managed in a range from 2.5 to 20 kGy while the quantity of hydrogen peroxide was adjusted in a range of 0 to 4.5%. The chemical structure of the depolymerized sodium alginate (DSA) was analyzed to have scission of 1,4-glycoside bond mainly and a few fragmentary formate end groups which may be produced by the cleavage between C2 and C3 in repeating unit of alginate. It turned out to have simple chemical structures at the DSA end groups, produced by e-beam irradiation, similar with those in the polymer SA structure. As a result, the molecular weight of SA decreased as the energy and dosage of applied e-beam increased, and the radiation yield of scission showed the best result at 2w/v% in SA concentration. The highest radiation yield of scission () was confirmed when an irradiation dosage of 20 kGy (2 MeV) and 1.5% hydrogen peroxide were used in 2% SA aqueous solution.